Flexibility

[Jeff Quiggle]

I have been working on my flexibility everyday for 3 to 4 months now and it seems like nothing has improved. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I'm wondering does anyone have some advice or what kind of stretches to do? I have watched Eddie Bravos flexibility videos too.

[Luis Acherbo]

theres a whole section of it in his mastering the rubber guard book you can also try the ryan hall videos

[Ben]

Make sure you're stretching correctly. Don't just go into slow, "hold-the-stretch for a minute" stretching right away. Start with a warm up, like a quick jog or some movements to loosen the body up. Once you got a light sweat going and your heart is beating, then start your stretching. Hold each for a minute or less, followed by moving the muscles involved through their range of motion, then stretch again. Do that for every stretch you do, and you should see results a bit faster. The cool thing about stretching, as opposed to say, weight lifting, is that you can do the same muscles all day and only get better. There isn't a "rest" period you need to go through with stretching. So, maybe the issues isn't that you aren't doing it everyday, but instead you aren't doing it long enough to get any real results. Hope that helps.

[Jeff Quiggle]

Thank you, I definitely will check those out and I will start stretching everyday for a longer period of time. Thanks again for all of the input.

[AJ Camacho]

Personally, my biggest gains in flexibility have been during post class stretches after I'm all warmed up.

[Bryan Bjerke]

For maximum safety, stretch the muscles and connective tissue to the degree where the myotatic(stretch) reflex is activated and move beyond to the point of light irritation. Stretch gently for 1 1/2 to 2 seconds providing less than one pound of assistance, release the pressure, return to the starting position and repeat. releasing the pressure on the tissues being stretched at the point of light irritation helps prevent the reversal contraction of the tissue triggered by the stretch reflex. Prolonged stretching may result in soreness from overstretching or scar tissue from tissue tearing.

[Jason Hyatt]

Look into PNF stretching as well.